Method and system for improving client server transmission over fading channel with wireless location and authentication technology via electromagnetic radiation

ABSTRACT

Wireless personal area network (Zigbee, Bluetooth, UWB) and wireless identification technologies (Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)) are implemented in particular client server functions and communications. Connected with an Authentication Server, a wireless HUB authenticates user identification and provides the user with access to secure data communication with a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA. A Location Server provides user locations via methods such as RSSI, TDOA, and GPS and sends location information to a Center Control Server and the Authentication Server. With location information, the Center Control Server initiates and optimizes secure information processes and coordinates the functions of servers and user terminals.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of previously filed U.S. applicationSer. No. 12/684,377, filed on Jan. 8, 2010, which claims the benefit of11/540,637, filed Oct. 2, 2006, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.§119 of previously filed provisional patent application Ser. No.60/722,444, entitled “Online Method and System for International TourismBusiness” and filed on Oct. 3, 2005, and also claims the benefit under35 U.S.C. §119 of previously filed provisional patent application Ser.No. 60/787,510, entitled “Intelligent Kiosk for Mobile Payment” andfiled on Mar. 31, 2006, and also claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119of previously filed provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/832, 962,entitled “Method and System for Global Telecommunication Transactions”and filed on Jul. 25, 2006. The entire contents of these applicationsare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally wireless communication security, andmore particularly to a method and system for facilitating electroniccommunication of secure information.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication and network technologies have advanced with anaccelerating rate. How to integrate, apply, improve, and manage wirelesscommunication and computer server technology advancement in industry andeconomic development always remains a challenge.

Although network communication has become prevalent in people's lives,how to enable secure data transmission in the global context withwireless terminals presents another area of need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The applications of part or all the embodiments of present inventionprovide improvement of secure data communication in industry andbusiness. The potential increased efficiency and profits generated aresustained by integrated information across industry sectors, time, andnetworks.

By improving wireless communication security technology and integratingwireless communication with remote server functionality, this inventionprovides a method and system to advance security and efficiency of datacommunication. The invented method and system have valuable applicationsin sectors of servers and computer software, logistics,telecommunications, global trade, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures depict, in highly simplified schematic form, embodimentsreflecting the principles of the invention. Many items and details thatwill be readily understood by one familiar with this field have beenomitted so as to avoid obscuring the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the architecture of anexample of a system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of Center ControlServer Modules in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a wirelesscommunication structure of a system in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIGS. 4A-B are schematic diagrams illustrating an example of anauthentication process in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an NFCcommunication system in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an Account Management Server andcorresponding functionality.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are functional block diagrams illustrating processes inaccordance with the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an event diagram illustrating an example of information flowin accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The invention will now be taught using various exemplary embodiments. Itwill be appreciated that the invention is not limited to just theseembodiments. It is and will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthese specific details are not required in order to practice the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system architecture in accordancewith the present invention. The system includes Center Control Server200, which is connected to a wireless HUB 320, Authentication Server330, Location server 340, Account Management Server 250, and userterminal(s) 460 through a network 100, such as the Internet. Thewireless HUB 320, along with Authentication Server 330, authenticatesuser's identification through a short range Electromagnetic (EM)radiation and provides the user with access to secure data communicationwith a wireless terminal such as a cellular phone or a PDA. The CenterControl Server 200, through various functional modules, manages the dataflow and coordinates the functions of the servers and user terminals.User location information is sent from the Location Server 340 andprocessed to initiate, accelerate, and optimize the flow of informationand corresponding processes.

Various aspects described herein may be embodied as systems, methods orcomputer programs. Computer program embodiments may be stored on acomputer readable medium such as a magnetic disk, optical disk,non-volatile memory, or other tangible computer readable media. Suchcomputer programs variously include program instructions that areexecutable by a processor to perform operations comprising thosedescribed in detail herein.

One aspect of the invention implements a cellular network, a wirelesspersonal area network (WPAN) and wireless identification technology.Various technologies are applicable to this aspect of the invention,including but not limited to 3G technology for the cellular network;Zigbee, Bluetooth, or UWB technologies for the WPAN; and RFID (e.g.,NFC) for the wireless identification technology.

The present invention facilitates secure data transmission through thewireless HUB 320. The wireless HUB 320 first receives and recognizes aunique identifier corresponding to a mobile terminal through a wirelessconnection. Once this authentication is processed, the wireless HUB 320establishes a communication channel with the user terminal for securedata transmission. The data is routed via the secure communicationchannel to the Center Control Server 200 and processed by the functionmodules.

FIG. 3 illustrates and provides a system process in accordance with thisaspect of the invention. In FIG. 3, the secure communication channel isseparate from the short range wireless connection used to receive theunique identifier in order to achieve a greater bandwidth.Alternatively, the authentication and data transmission upon thecompletion of the authentication can share a wireless communicationchannel.

The wireless HUB (WHUB) 320 is located in a public or private location.For a public location, the WHUB 320 is preferably housed in a kiosk. Thekiosk may be located on a street, or in an airport, shopping mall, orany location that is perceived as convenient and likely to include usertraffic. For private locations, the WHUB 320 is preferably configuredfor usage in locations like homes or hotel rooms. In these environments,the WHUB 320 may be provided in a smaller device such as part of a SetTop Box (STB).

The handset 310 is equipped with a tag that provides a unique identifierthat can be wirelessly communicated to the WHUB 320. A preferred tag isa Near Field Communication (NFC) tag 312. NFC provides short-rangewireless connectivity via EM radiation that uses magnetic fieldinduction to enable communication between the devices. It has a shortrange of a few centimeters, which is believed to provide securityadvantages for applications of this aspect of the present invention.Although NFC is preferred, RFID or other substitutes can also beprovided. The handset 310 also includes a WPAN transceiver 314, whichallows an additional communication channel between the handset and theWHUB.

The wireless WHUB 320 is similarly equipped with an NFC reader 322, aWPAN transceiver 324 and a network adaptor 326. The NFC technologyaccommodates secure and automatic authentication and data exchangebetween the NFC tag and NFC reader.

The process of authentication may be based upon a Tag ID and password002. The Tag ID and password 006 are sent to the authentication server,which then returns a notification 012 confirming authentication.Preferably, this authentication indicates whether the individual is whohe or she claims to be, but does not address the access rights of theindividual. The authentication server may reside within or outside theWHUB 320. The authentication processes are further illustrated in FIGS.4A-B.

The communication through the separate secure communication channel(e.g., WPAN) is then established upon the completion of authentication.The WPAN functionality is used to communicate between the handset andthe WHUB, so that content related to a requested action may be securelyexchanged. In this example, the requested action is a purchase request004.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the NFC is uniquelyassociated with other information that allows an appropriate action(payment, alert, etc.) to take place. For example, when the system isbeing used to accommodate mobile payment, the RFID tag can be associatedwith the user's bank account. Further, both the WHUB 320 and wirelesshandset/terminal 310 are authorized by the Authentication Server 330.Once the devices are authenticated (i.e., the WHUB is a genuine WHUB), asecond secure communication channel with more capabilities isestablished between the handset 310 and WHUB 320. This allows the actionrequest and transaction information to be reliably transmitted betweenthe two devices. Once the user's terminal 310 is associated with theuser's bank account, the WHUB 320 can perform the functions of an ATMfor the user to manage his bank account (e.g., depositing or withdrawingmoney from the user's bank account).

A communication of the second secure wireless connection or bothwireless connections can implement a WPAN transceiver, which has ahigher data rate and longer operational range compared to NFC. Thesecure communication can be implemented by hardware (e.g., a dedicatedhardware chipset) and software (e.g., data encryption algorithm). Thesecure communication allows the exchange of transaction processinformation such as price and credit card information for a purchaserequest and bidding proposals among transaction parties. It is alsonoted that the WHUB 320 is optionally configured with a wirelesscommunication capability such as cellular network communication. TheWHUB 320 is also preferably configured to operate with a system thatdelivers Internet content.

The WHUB 320 can also exchange data with other WPAN devices 350, and theWPAN can include NFC functions for authentication purposes.

The NFC communication system used in this invention is an inductivelycoupled RFID system. Its working frequency is designed to utilize eitherlow frequency (LF) 125 kHz or high frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz, due to thefact that higher usable field strengths can be achieved in the operatingrange of the reader (e.g., 0-10 cm) in a lower frequency band than wouldbe the case in a higher frequency band.

Due to the short distance between the reader and NFC tag, this NFCsystem employ inductive coupling for data transmission. All the energyneeded for the operation of the NFC tag 322 has to be provided by theNFC reader 312 (FIG. 4C). For this purpose, the reader's antenna coilgenerates a strong, high frequency electromagnetic field, whichpenetrates the cross-section of the coil area and the area around thecoil. Because the wavelength of the frequency range used (125 kHz: 2400m, 13.56 MHz: 22.1 m) is several times greater than the distance betweenthe NFC reader's antenna and the NFC tag, the electromagnetic field maybe treated as a simple magnetic alternating field with regard to thedistance between NFC tag and antenna.

NFC uses magnetic field induction to enable communication betweendevices when they're touched together, or brought within a fewcentimeters of each other. The energy and wave transmission are based onMaxwell's equation

$\begin{matrix}\{ \begin{matrix}{\frac{\forall{\times B}}{\mu} = {j + \frac{\partial D}{\partial t}}} \\{{{\forall{\times E}} = {- \frac{\partial B}{\partial t}}}\mspace{25mu}} \\{{{\forall{\times E}} = 0}\mspace{70mu}}\end{matrix}  & (1)\end{matrix}$

where B is the magnetic induction, E is the electric field, D is theelectric displacement, and H is the magnetic field. The definition forcur ∀×A

$\begin{matrix}{{{is}\mspace{14mu} {\forall{\times A}}} = {{( {\frac{\partial A_{Z}}{\partial y} - \frac{\partial A_{y\;}}{\partial z}} )\overset{arrow}{x}} + {( {\frac{\partial A_{x}}{\partial z} - \frac{\partial A_{z}}{\partial x}} )\overset{arrow}{y}} + {( {\frac{\partial A_{y}}{\partial x} - \frac{\partial A_{x}}{\partial y}} )\overset{arrow}{z}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

A plane electric wave travel in the horizontal (“x”) direction space isrepresented as

$\frac{\partial^{2}E}{\partial x^{2}} = {\frac{1}{c^{2}}\frac{\partial^{2}E}{\partial t^{2}}}$

where c is the speed of light. The same form can be applied to magneticfield wave in a place perpendicular the electrical field. Both E&B fieldare perpendicular to the travel direction x:

E=E _(m) sin(kx−ωt)

B=B _(m) sin(kx−ωt)  (3)

The WHUB 320 communicates with Location Server 340 for the mobileterminal 310 location. The Location Server 340 may detect the mobileterminal 310 location using various techniques such as Time Differenceof Arrival (TDOA), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), GPS/AGPS,and cellular tower. The location information is used to promotemerchandise trading and accelerate and optimize the transaction process.The user location information can be further used for security purposes.For example, a user detected at location A may be declined to a requestfor a cash advance or withdrawal that is made from a WHUB 320 that isactually at a different location B.

Received signal strength indication (RSSI) based location mechanism istypically used in the environment where the density of fixed referencesignal sources (such as cell tower, access points) is high. Thetransmitting power of a reference signal source is denoted as P_(t), andthe distance between the reference signal source and the mobile deviceis d. The RSSI can be calculated as follows:

P _(r) =P _(t)−20 log₁₀(4πf/c)−20 log₁₀ d  (4)

where f is the RF frequency.

The RSSI based location mechanism constitutes two steps: 1) site surveyto generate radio map and 2) table looking based location estimation. Instep 1, a radio map is generated via either manual site survey or someautomotive software algorithm. The radio contains list of positions withcorrelated RSSI values. After a radio map is generated, the location ofa mobile device is estimated by comparing the instant RSSI fromdifferent reference signal sources with the radio map. The location inthe radio map with the RSSI data that match the current RSSI data willbe considered as the mobile terminal's location.

Another position tracking method that may be used to provide thelocation information to the Location Server 340 would typically involvea mobile user who is operating on an OFDM wireless communication system.The OFDM system is one of the modulation schemes for next generationwireless communication systems. An OFDM system with N sub-carriersemploys M-ary digital modulation, a block of log₂ M input bits is mappedinto a symbol constellation point d_(k) by a data encoder, and then Nsymbols are transferred by the serial-to-parallel converter (S/P). If Tdenotes the symbol interval, the symbol interval in the OFDM system isincreased to NT, which makes the system more robust against the channeldelay spread. Each sub-channel, however, transmits at a much lower bitrate of log₂ M/NT bits/s. The parallel symbols (d₀d₁ . . . d_(k) . . .d_(N-1)) modulate a group of orthogonal sub-carriers, which satisfy

$\begin{matrix}{{\frac{1}{NT}{\int_{0}^{NT}{{{\exp ( {j\; 2\pi \; f_{i}t} )} \cdot {\exp ( {j\; 2\pi \; f_{j}t} )}}{t}}}} = \{ {{{\begin{matrix}1 & {i = j} \\0 & {i \neq j}\end{matrix}{where}\mspace{14mu} f_{i}} = \frac{i}{NT}},( {{i = 0},{1\mspace{14mu} \ldots}\mspace{14mu},{N - 1}} )} } & (5)\end{matrix}$

The baseband transmitted signal can be represented as

$\begin{matrix}{{s(t)} = {{\frac{1}{\sqrt{NT}}{\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{N - 1}{s_{k}{^{j\; 2\pi \; f_{k}t}( {0 \leq t \leq {NT}} )}f_{k}}}} = \frac{k}{NT}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

The average energy for the complex baseband symbol s_(k) is denoted by2E_(s). Then s_(k) is given by:

s _(k)=√{square root over (2E _(s))}·d _(k)  (7)

where d_(k)=d_(k,r)+jd_(k,i), is the signal constellation point (e.g.BPSK, QPSK, QAM, etc.) with normalized variance E[|d_(k)|²]=1. The realand imaginary parts d_(k,r) and d_(k,t) are statistically independent,identically distributed and E[d_(k,r)]=E[d_(k,i)]=0.

A command frequency selective randomly varying channel with impulseresponse h(t, τ) is considered. Within the narrower bandwidth of eachsub-carrier, compared with the coherence bandwidth of the channel, thesub-channel is modeled as a frequency nonselective Rayleigh fadingchannel. Hence, the channel impulse response h_(k)(t, τ) for the k^(th)subchannel is denoted as

h _(k)(t,τ)=β_(k)(t)·δ(τ)  (8)

where β_(k)(t) is a stationary, zero mean complex-valued processdescribed as follows. It is assumed that the processes β_(k)(t), k=1, .. . , N, are complex-valued jointly stationary and jointly Gaussian withzero mean and covariance function

R _(β) _(k) _(,β) _(l) (τ)=E[β _(k)(t+τ)β*_(l)(t)],k,l=0, . . .,N−1.  (9)

For each fixed k, the real and imaginary parts of the process β_(k)(t)are assumed independent with identical covariance function. Furtherassumed is the factorable form

R _(β) _(k) _(,β) _(l) (τ)=R ₁(τ)R ₂(k−1),  (10)

with R₁(τ) and R₂(k−l) specified below. R₁(τ) gives the temporalcorrelation for the process β_(k)(t) which is seen to be identical forall k=0, . . . , N−1. R₂(k−l) represents the correlation in frequencyacross subcarriers. In this circumstance it is assumed that thecorresponding spectral density Ψ₁(f) to R₁(τ) is given by the Dopplerpower spectrum, modeled as Jakes model, i.e.,

$\begin{matrix}{{D(f)} = \{ \begin{matrix}\frac{1}{\pi \; {F_{d} \cdot \sqrt{1 - ( \frac{f}{F_{d}} )^{2}}}} & {{f} \leq F_{d}} \\0 & {otherwise}\end{matrix} } & (11)\end{matrix}$

where F_(d) is the (maximum) Doppler bandwidth. Note that

R ₁(τ)=J ₀(2πF _(D)τ)  (12)

where J₀(τ) is the zero-order Bessel function of the first kind. Inorder to specify the correlation in frequency across subcarriers, anexponential multipath power intensity of the form

S(τ)=αe ^(−αr) τ>0,α>0  (13)

is adopted, where α is a parameter that controls the coherence bandwidthof the channel. The Fourier transform of S(τ) yields

$\begin{matrix}{{\psi_{2}(f)} = \frac{\alpha}{\alpha + {j\; 2\pi \; f}}} & (14)\end{matrix}$

which provides a measure of the correlation of the fading across thesubcarriers. Then

R ₂(k−l)=ψ₂(Δf(k,l))  (15)

where Δf=1/NT is the frequency separation between two adjacentsubcarriers. The 3 dB bandwidth of Ψ₂(f) is defined as the coherencebandwidth of the channel and easily shown to be f_(coherence)=√{squareroot over (3)}α/2π. This model is applicable to many practical wirelessOFDM systems and physical channel scenario.

The given value of the first arrived path t₀ and noise vector n are bothzero mean random variable with probability density function represent as

$\begin{matrix}{{p( s \middle| t_{0} )} = {\frac{1}{{{Det}( Z_{s} )}\pi^{N}}{\exp ( {{- s^{*}}Z_{s}^{- 1}s} )}}} & (16)\end{matrix}$

The value t₀ is obtained by applying ML when equation (16) is maximized.Therefore, the location of the mobile user is estimated based upon thevalue of t₀.

According to one aspect of the invention, the financial transaction mayor may not immediately follow authentication. The cellular phone may beconfigured to include browsing capability, which allows the cellularphone to be used to communicate with merchants prior to making apurchase request. Internet content can also be accessed by the cellularphone in association with a transaction request.

Also, the cellular phone may access Internet content through methodsother than through the WHUB.

Various purchase types may be made with the purchase request. Examplesmay include a physical item that is separately shipped to an address, adownload that is made available immediately, possibly to the cellularphone, a service, etc.

It is also noted that a purchase request is just one form of an actionthat may be carried out. Other business or financial transactioninformation processed by the system include but are not limited to billpayment, populating an account with funds, online shopping transactions,dynamic and reverse bidding, and others.

As necessary, additional information may also be required in associationwith a requested action. For example, account identification informationor passwords to access an account for the transaction parties hosted bythe system or an external server may be required. In thesecircumstances, the Account Management Server 250 sends a request to theWHUB for the information. The WHUB may store such information andrespond to such a request. Alternatively, the WHUB may further exchangeinformation with the user (through the handset), in order to obtain theadditional information requested.

In connection with the purchase request 004, a payment request 014 ismade between the WHUB 320 and Account Management Server 250 through thenetwork connection. The payment request 014 allows the user to completethe transaction related to the purchase request 004. To accommodate asatisfactory completion of the payment request, the Account ManagementServer 250 corresponds with a payment gateway, and sends a solution 018indicating the success or failure of the payment request.

Upon an indication of a successful payment request, the WHUB 320receives a receipt 022 or confirmation number from the AccountManagement Server relating to the requested action, and passes 024 thatand related information to the handset confirming completion of theaction. This may be a receipt, confirmation numbers, coupon codes, orthe like.

According to another aspect of the invention, Account Management Server(AMS) 250 opens and manages accounts for users. The system users arecategorized into two transaction parties: the Item Request Party (IRP)and Item Supply Party (ISP). The ISP's income is remitted instantly orperiodically to the ISP's bank account from ISP's account with AccountManagement Server 250. This solution has unique advantage forcross-border financial transactions, particularly, for those countriesthat don't have compatible credit card payment infrastructure acrossborders.

FIG. 5 illustrates certain functionality of the Account ManagementServer corresponding to an example of a payment solution for atransaction processed according to one aspect of the present invention.In this example, the IRP 410 is a US tourist who has purchased tourismservice package in China from a Chinese travel agency (the ISP 450). Thecredit payment of the IRP 410 is transmitted 413 to the systemprovider's bank account in the US 253. The Account Management Server 250adds the credit to the ISP's account with Account Management Server. Thepayment to the ISP's bank account in China is transmitted from thesystem provider's bank account in China 257, e.g. with the Bank ofChina, as soon as the IRP in the US confirms the purchase. Hence, thecharge related to cross border money transmission is avoided for everysingle international trade and business processed by the system. Theaccumulated payment in the system provider's bank account at one countrycan be transmitted to the account at another country periodically. Orthe payment from IRPs at country A to ISPs at country B cancels out thepayment from IRPs at country B to ISPs at country A so cross countrymoney transmission can be avoided. Further, the system provider maychoose the same international bank for its accounts at differentcountries to reduce the cross border financial transmission fee. Thisaspect of the present invention not only allows sellers of internationalbusiness to receive payments promptly, it also benefits the onlinebuyers and sellers with lower transmission fee for international tradeand business. In addition, it provides an improved payment solution tothe countries without sound credit card operations.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the Center control Server 200configured to provide an information platform for the informationprocess. In this embodiment, the system provides registered users withuser terminals 460, 310 and 420. IRP request information is from CenterControl Server to ISPs' terminals according to ISPs' particular needs.Users can access their terminals from a server, a wireless terminal, andthe like. Account Management Server 250 manages the payment of thetransaction based on the mechanism described in FIG. 5. IntelligentRecommendation Module 230 provides the users with information related tothe transaction such as market competition information and transactionparties' credit and location information. Dynamic Reverse Auction Module210 and Dynamic Group Transaction Module 220 manage the transactioninformation process.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of information flow among the ItemRequest Party (IRP) 410, center control server (CCS) 200, LocationServer (340), and Item Supply Party (ISP) 450. In the invented system,ISPs bid instead of IRPs. In addition, the IRP leads the bidding processby submitting (step 426) and modifying (step 436) requests andrequirements of items or services. The ISPs, at their customizedterminals, access IRP's requests (step 428), submit transactionproposal/offers (step 432), and monitor the competitors' proposals andmodification of requests in real real time (step 438). The requests andrequirements may alter during the process according to the real-timecompetition information (step 436). During the real time progress of theinformation process, the Center Control Server (CCS), via IntelligentRecommendation Module (IRM) 230, provides IRPs and ISPs with marketcompetition information pertaining to IRP's requests and ISP's proposalsincluding but not limited to prices from market competitors, quality,accessories of the requested items or services, credit rating andlocations of transaction parties, analysis and recommendations, andongoing bidding activities and group buy/sale negations related with therequests and proposals.

According to another aspect, this present invention facilitatesnegotiation and competition among transaction parties using user'slocation information. Center Control Server obtains the locationinformation from Location Server. With the location information of IRP,certain request and requirement are sent only to ISP close to the IRP.Further, the location information of IRP is used to initiate “group buy”request (step 462 in FIG. 7) by IRP within a same geographical location.According to this embodiment, individual IRP with similar demand mayorganize into groups and negotiate with ISPs collectively. Further, ISPcan use the IRP's location information to organize “group sale” byoutputting discount group sale information only to the IRP located in asame geographical area via Center Control Server. One application ofthis invention is in retail industry: retail buyers pay discount priceavailable only for bulk purchase and manufacturers benefit fromincreased sale, reduced cost and improved operation efficiency.

In the process of transaction information, the formation of group isintegrated into the process of ISP's bidding and IRP's requestmodification. In step 472 in FIG. 7, the variables of group purchaserequest modified include group formation requirement and informationsuch as the time left before the deal is closed, size of the group,price, quantity, quality, services, and accessories of the itemrequested, etc. These variables alter simultaneously and continuouslyand affect the change of each other. The related market competitioninformation and recommendations are sent to the IRPs and ISPs fromCenter control Server. And the two transaction parties monitor thestatus of information variables of the competition real time.

This embodiment of the invention significantly improves the staticreverse bidding process in applications. The dynamic feature of thenegotiation process enables ISPs and IRPs to locate each other mostefficiently and effectively eliminating traditional distributionchannels and layers of middlemen and bypassing obstacles presented bytime and space.

A good application of this aspect of invention is in E-commerce. Withthe invented process, the buyers buy the most optimum products with thebest price based on real time competition among sellers in the globalcontext. Since the buyers themselves define requests and productrequirements, sellers are able to target the clientele effectively. Inaddition, the sellers' benefits are beyond being informed of marketdemand real time—they are able to update the customers of the latestproduct information through their terminals.

The location information of the users provided by Location Server can beused to start a “group buy” bidding by IRPs in a same geographical area,e.g. skiers at a ski resort. Furthermore, an IRP can initiate a dynamicreverse auction among ISPs from a designated geographical area. Inaddition, ISP can select IRPs according to IRPs locations to promote“group sale” products or services. Critically, according to users'location information, the location of the nearby wireless HUBs alongwith the information of ongoing bidding, negotiation, and grouptransaction promotion processed by the system are sent to user'sterminals. Last but not least, the user's location information is usedto authenticate a user and/or restrict his activities in a geographicalarea such as withdrawing money from some wireless HUBs.

Besides location information, the request and transaction proposals canbe sent to ISPs according to other criteria. Exclusive ISP receivesinformation that is blocked to his competitors. Further, ISPs can becategorized into classes for receiving market demand and competitioninformation of varied level of quality and/or at different timeinterval.

Another embodiment of the invention provides transaction parties totrade by exchanging their products and services without monetarytransactions. This embodiment of invention also provides credits or asystem currency for circulation among the users.

In another embodiment of the invention, a user's participation of thetransactions or programs processed at the system is motivated throughsystem credit or other kind of reward. The system credit is used amongsystem users for trading goods, services. The credit is calculated witha rate, which increases with acceleration based on the participation ofthe user or the credit accumulated through participation. The rate canalso be determined together with other variables such as user'sparticipation of an ongoing promotion or the number of system usersreferred.

One embodiment of the invention is that an immediate acceptance pricefor IRP's request is indicated and/or a corresponding deposit is made inan escrow account managed by the Account Management Server. As soon asan ISP propose a transaction that meets the immediate acceptance price,the transaction is confirmed and the deposit is transferred to an ISP'saccount.

The above applications of the disclosed method and system are merelyexample of the invention, provided for the sake of completeness and forthe education of the reader by way of concrete examples. The inventioncan be embodied in various forms and applied in different industrysectors. Combinations and sub-combinations of the various embodimentsdescribed above will occur to those familiar with this field, withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, thefollowing claims should not be limited to the description of theembodiments or otherwise constrained in any way to the details ofimplementation.

1. A method for facilitating location based electronic commerce, themethod comprising: receiving location information of a wireless device;sending commercial transaction related information to the wirelessdevice based on a correlation between the commercial transaction relatedinformation and the location of the wireless device; and using a uniqueshort range electromagnetic radiation communication identifiercorresponding to the wireless device in connection with establishing asecure communication channel for transmitting information related to thecommercial transaction related information; providing an application forthe wireless device, wherein the application supports responding to thecommercial transaction related information.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the unique short range electromagnetic radiation communicationidentifier is an RFID Tag and the short range electromagnetic (EM)radiation communication identifier is transmitted through a NFC channel.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the secure communication channel isone of a Bluetooth, a UWB, a WWAN, a cellular network, a wired network,a NFC, and a WLAN communication.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommercial transaction related information comprises one or more of thefollowing: a. location information of a transaction party; b.credibility rating of a transaction party; c. product information andanalysis including one or more of historical price, features, quality,discount, promotion, and accessories; d. commercial promotion or marketcompetition information and analysis including one or more of currentprice competition or promotion discount; e. information relating tocommunication among transaction parties such as online status; f.information relating to credit or reward from an item supply party; g. anumber for calculating a user's reward such as a system credit fortrading goods or services, wherein the number increases withacceleration based on the accumulation or frequency of a user'sparticipation in transactions; h. group transaction informationincluding group formation status information wherein transaction partiesparticipating the group transaction are provided with a group benefit;i. a transaction message indicating a suggested supply; and j. status ormodification of one or more of group transaction and group formation. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the location information is received withone of: a. cellular/GPS location information; b. IP address information;c. Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA), d. Direction Difference of Arrival(DDOA) e. ZIP code f. Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), and g.profile information provided by users.
 6. The method of claim 1, thecommercial transaction related information comprises a group size and atime limit of group formation for a group transaction whereintransaction parties participating the group transaction are providedwith a group benefit.
 7. The method of claim 1, the unique short rangeelectromagnetic radiation communication identifier is received andrecognized by a wireless HUB.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein thewireless HUB is housed within one of a kiosk, a set top box, and a TV.9. The method of claim 7, wherein the wireless HUB separately collectsutility information.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the unique shortrange electromagnetic radiation communication identifier is associatedwith a financial account information.
 11. An electronic system forfacilitating location based e-commerce activities, the systemcomprising: a database for storing unique identifiers respectivelycorresponding to users of a plurality of wireless devices; a locationdetermining unit that determines location information comprisingrespective geographic positions of the plurality of wireless devices; asecure communications unit that uses a unique short rangeelectromagnetic radiation communication identifier corresponding to thewireless device in connection with establishing a secure communicationchannel for transmitting information related to commercial transactionrelated information wherein the location information of one or more ofthe plurality of wireless devices is used to correlate the one or morewireless device users to the commercial transaction related information;a user application unit that provides an application for the wirelessdevice, wherein the application supports responding to the commercialtransaction related information.
 12. A terminal device, comprising: aprocessor; and a memory, the memory containing program code executableby the processor to perform operations comprising: providing locationinformation of the terminal device; receiving commercial transactionrelated information based on a correlation between the commercialtransaction related information and the location of the terminal device;and applying a short range electromagnetic radiation communicationidentifier unique to the terminal device in connection with establishinga secure communication channel for transmitting information related tothe commercial transaction related information; wherein an applicationin the terminal device supports responding to the commercial transactionrelated information.
 13. The claim of the terminal device of 12, furthercomprising storing the information related to the commercial transactionrelated information in the terminal device.
 14. A method forfacilitating electronic communication among transaction parties, themethod comprising: receiving, from at least one item supply party, atleast an offer of a group transaction for an item or service whereintransaction parties participating the group transaction are providedwith a group benefit; receiving location information of a clientprocess; sending information pertaining to the group transaction,including information of group formation for the group transaction, tothe client process, based on a correlation between the group transactionand the location of the client process; and establishing a securecommunication channel with the client process based on recognition of aunique identifier corresponding to a user of the client process; andreceiving financial information from the client process, through thesecure communication channel, related to the group transaction.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the group transaction offer is associatedwith a request for an item or service from an item request groupcomprising a plurality of individuals requesting the same one or moreitem or service.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the grouptransaction is associated with one or more item supply parties, whereinone item supply party is an exclusive item supply party, and supplytransaction information from the exclusive item supply party is notprovided to the others of the item supply parties.
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the information pertaining to the group transaction isselected and only provided to one or more selected item supply partiesmeeting a criterion at same time or at different time.
 18. The method ofclaim 14, further comprising receiving an immediate transactionindication with respect to the one or more items requested, wherein: theimmediate transaction indicates a threshold acceptance value; and whenone of the suggested supply transaction meets the threshold acceptancevalue, the suggested supply transaction is immediately accepted at thethreshold acceptance value.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein: theimmediate transaction indication is provided together with an immediateacceptance value; and the acceptance of the suggested supply transactionis followed by the transfer of the immediate acceptance value to thecorresponding item supply party.
 20. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising receiving information of an item transaction method, whereinthe item transaction method operates one or more of the following:specific credit circulated among the transaction parties; a currency;and an exchange of goods or services between any two or more transactionparties.
 21. The method of claim 14, wherein the information of grouptransaction includes group formation status and group formationinformation comprising a group size and a time limit of group formation.22. The method of claim 21, wherein the group size and/or the time limitalters based on the information pertaining to the transaction includingone or more of: progress of the group formation; a suggested supply froman item supply party; market competition among the item request partiesand/or item supply parties; product related information; and atransaction request from an item request party.
 23. The method of claim14, wherein the unique identifier is associated with a financial accountinformation.
 24. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing auser application on the client process for communication informationrelated with the group transaction and/or online status of thetransaction parties.
 25. The method of claim 14, the informationpertaining to the group transaction comprising one of more of thefollowing: a. location information of a transaction party; b.credibility rating of a transaction party; c. product information andanalysis including one or more of historical price, features, quality,and accessories; d. market and competition information and analysisincluding one or more of current price competition and promotiondiscount; e. information relating to communication among transactionparties such as online status; f. information relating to credit orreward from an item supply party; g. a number for calculating the user'sreward such as a system credit, wherein the number increases withacceleration based on the accumulation or frequency of a user'sparticipation in the transactions processed by the system; h.requirement about the group formation such as a quantity of the items byjoining party; i. a transaction message indicating a suggested supply;and j. status or modification of one or more of group transaction andgroup formation.
 26. The method of claim 14, wherein the locationinformation is received with one of: a. cellular/GPS locationinformation; b. IP address information; c. Time Difference of Arrival(TDOA), d. Direction Difference of Arrival (DDOA) e. ZIP code f.Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), and g. profile informationprovided by users.
 27. The method of claim 14, wherein the locationinformation is used for security management for one or more of: useridentification, user activity restriction, and rejecting the user's itemtransaction request or financial transaction request.
 28. The method ofclaim 14, further comprises: transferring a value, for the payment ofthe transaction item, from an account of a first transaction partyrequesting the item, to a first account of a system provider;transferring the value from a second account of the system provider, toan account of a second transaction party supplying the item; wherein thefirst and second transaction parties are involved with fulfilling theitem transaction; wherein the first and second accounts of the systemprovider are in different nation states; wherein the transferring of thevalue from the second account of the system provider to the account ofthe item supply party is made either upon a request from the item supplyparty or is made periodically, and the value is the accumulated paymentsfor one or more item transactions.
 29. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising receiving one or more of the following: a. a group inclusionrequest message pertaining to the group formation event; b. atransaction message indicating one or more items requested; c. atransaction offer indicating one or more items supply; d. acceptance ofa suggested supply transaction or confirmation of the transaction; e.modification on transaction information such as group formationrequirement or request or modification on other transaction variables;f. financial information of a transaction party.
 30. The method of claim14, wherein the client process is a terminal of a transaction party,wherein the terminal is one or more of: a computer; a server/computersystem; a wireless device; a PDA; and a cellular telephony device. 31.The method of 30, wherein the terminal of transaction parties comprisinga user application for communication of transaction informationincluding one or more of: a. supply information, b. an item requested,c. time limit of the group formation, d. request or requirement relatingto the group formation, e. a group inclusion request message pertainingto the group formation event; f. a transaction message indicating one ormore items requested; g. acceptance of the suggested supply transactionor confirmation of the transaction; h. market competition information;i. modification on transaction information such as group formationrequest or requirement for group transaction; j. payment information.32. The method of claim 14, wherein the information pertaining to thegroup transaction is conveyed by an alert message to the client process.33. An electronic commerce system comprising: means for receiving, fromat least one item or service supply party, at least one grouptransaction offer for an item or service wherein transaction partiesbelonging to the group transaction are provided with a group benefit;means for receiving location information of a client process; means forsending information pertaining to the group transaction offer includinginformation of group formation for the group transaction, to the clientprocess, based on a correlation between the group transaction offer andthe location of the client process; and means for establishing a securecommunication channel with the client process based on recognition of aunique identifier corresponding to a user of the client process; andmeans for receiving financial information from the client process,through the secure communication channel, related to the grouptransaction.